Larry Lamb: My biggest regret? Paying into a pension

Larry Lamb, 64, is best known for his roles in EastEnders and Gavin &
Stacey.

How did your childhood influence your work ethic and attitude towards money?

Larry Lamb talks fame and fortune

I grew up the eldest of three children in Edmonton, north London, and I had a very turbulent childhood. As a result, I've always craved stability and a career that meant a regular income and a comfortable life.

When I was very young my parents owned a fish and chip shop, and I first started working there when I was five, making the tea. Then by the age of seven I was taught how to cut and fillet the fish.

Family life changed radically when I was 10 and my mum left Dad, leaving me and my younger brother with Dad. I felt I'd lost both my parents but one man who kept me right was Albert Hunt, who ran a fruit and veg stall in nearby Harlow. He made my life bearable and gave me a punt on his stall. It's where I showed a real knack for the banter and public speaking.

What did you do after school?

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I didn't do A-levels because I knew I wasn't going to pass them. I'd made a complete hash of everything academically, so I had to get on with what I could do, which was talk and labour. I started out as a truck driver's mate, working for my uncle who was in the waste-paper business. Then somehow I ended up selling encyclopedias in Germany.

I still wanted to make something of my life and I blagged my way into the oil industry, in the very specialised area that deals with corrosion control. I was in Libya for a couple of years, then when I was promoted I was in the United States, followed by Canada.

For once I was in the same place for a prolonged time and there's not a whole lot to do in Antigonish (Nova Scotia), so I got involved in amateur dramatics. That really was the stepping point to the rest of my life. From there I got involved in professional acting because I realised I could love the work I did as well as earning a living. Working in oil, they may pay you well and look after you, but they own your life. I didn't want to be tied down to that extent.

But you craved stability and acting is legendary for being unpredictable. How did you manage?

Well, initially I was part of a touring acting company, so I wasn't tied into predictable sedentary bills.

I lived hand to mouth, I didn't have a credit line or a bank account. While I knew I was ultimately working towards the future when those things would be a part of my life, I liked not being burdened.

That's the problem these days – people are too loaded up with responsibilities, from a mortgage to a credit rating. We're owned by the system and you're just the tiny cipher at the end of it.

I started earning at five, so I really knew the value of a pound. You spend what you've got and spending more than you've got simply wasn't an option. Constantly encouraging people to borrow funnels them into the system, which has catastrophically imploded over the past few years.

So would you consider yourself a saver or a spender nowadays?

Ironically, a spender. I've always been like that but I live within my means. The problem being a self-employed actor is that you have to have a generous overdraft. My biggest indulgence is my children as I don't have a weakness for food, drink or clothes.

What's been the biggest lesson you've learnt about money over your career?

There's never enough of it! Investing in stocks and shares simply isn't an option, as I don't have enough money to do it.

What's been your best decision and your worst?

I'm more of an ideas man and I'm not the best person to see them through, so staying out of business has probably been my best.

Some people force themselves to go in directions where their actual talents aren't suited; I manned up and realised making serious money in business deals was never going to be my forte. I've bought a house and made money on it because of the markets, but I wouldn't say I'm a property investor.

I had a house in Normandy for 20 years as well and my children went to school there, but I don't have it any more.

One of the reasons I've turned out well is, despite my lack of strong family role models, growing up someone close to me turned me onto the fact that there is a life outside this country where they don't speak English.

That was very important to me as a working-class London boy and led me to be someone who went out into the world and I can now speak four other languages – French, Italian, Spanish and German.

My life is littered with bad decisions – where would I start? – things I should have done, but ultimately I think there's no point raking over them in minute detail. It's better to focus on the good decisions in any area of your life and try to keep that momentum going.

What kind of tipper are you?

I was trained to tip while I was working out in the US so one might think I was pretty generous, although I've become a lot more discerning now. If people don't give me good service, they don't get a tip, simple as. I was brought up in a service industry, so I understand the value of creating that goodwill without being subservient.

What's your biggest financial regret?

Paying into my pension – everything's in turmoil nowadays. When I realised that the pension I'd been paying into religiously for years (because that's what was drummed into you) wasn't going to amount to anything, I wished I'd put those payments towards my mortgage instead.

What would you change about the financial world if you could?

I would impose stricter regulations on the banks. They need to pay for their mistakes and their house needs to be brought into order. The Government needs to control them better. We've bailed out two major banks and they're still running riot on the way they do business – I mean, RBS just revealed they paid out £400m in bonuses to their investment bankers in 2011. Their continued existence is thanks to the British public and that's what we get in return?

But it's such a tangled web. How can it be unravelled?

The people we've elected as politicians aren't doing their job, simple as that. But they're so deeply involved in the moneymaking machine, why would they rap the hand that feeds them, so to speak?

We've got a PM that's a public relations man, but no one who has the balls to say: "The buck stops here. We're going to stop you [the banks] abusing your powers, we're going to rein in your bonuses and to hell if you use threats to go elsewhere."

If more Western countries that are in the same sinking financial boat did the same thing, then these threats would be meaningless. The book by Andrew Ross Sorkin, Too Big to Fail, shows an incredible insight into this mess.

Our current British politicians are insulting our intelligence – they're career politicians, rather than being driven to enact progressive change. Even though my career has flourished over the past five years, I just want to survive, and I'm worried about the bigger picture for this country.